Welcome to the Board — Meet Toni Meadows, Aleto's Newest Trustee

Toni has spent 35 years working in investment management — 27 of them in private wealth management — and has been a Chief Investment Officer, or equivalent, for the last 22 years. In that role, he controls the entire investment framework for an organisation: how it approaches investment, what it invests in, and the team of people doing the work for clients.

But ask Toni what he loves about his career, and the answer isn't about markets or mandates. It's about people. Building teams, assembling different perspectives, starting the right arguments — and creating environments where talented individuals can develop by working hard and thinking for themselves. "My job as a CIO is often to start and manage the right argument so that the sum total of our output is better than any one individual," he explains. "It is therefore important that the team have different backgrounds and skills."

He has also spent years watching the City move far too slowly toward genuine inclusion. "Quite often people think that the environment is 'not for them'," he says, "and I think we could be missing out on talent pools because of it." That conviction — that talent is everywhere and that access is the problem — is precisely what draws him to Aleto's mission.

Toni's relationship with Aleto didn't begin with a trustee conversation. It began at a kick-off event for the Summer Leadership Programme — hosted at the Daily Mail & General Trust offices — where he arrived with a set of expectations and left with something entirely different.

"I suppose I had the pre-conceived idea that I would be learning about the backgrounds of the cohort," he reflects. "How wrong could I be. By the end of the night I left with multiple good ideas and areas I wanted to follow up on and gain knowledge in." He didn't leave thinking about where people had come from. He left thinking about where they were going. "I didn't see differences in background; I only witnessed unbridled enthusiasm and well-constructed thinking. It made me want to engage more."

From there, Toni was matched with his mentee, Samson — a young man he describes, with clear affection, as an onion. "No, he doesn't make me cry, but he does have layers of skills that can be utilised in a number of ways." Their relationship quickly became one built on mutual respect, brainstorming, and genuine two-way learning. "There is no direction, teaching or dictating — two heads are better than one. In this way mentoring is a two-way street. We both learn and interpret for our own purposes."

For Toni, becoming a trustee wasn't a difficult decision. It was a natural next step in a commitment that had been building for some time. He is clear about where that commitment comes from: a childhood in North West London shaped by his father, by a diverse community of friends who became extended family, and by the belief — held throughout his life — that talent and character are not the exclusive property of any one background.

He grew up under the watchful eye of Isola Akay MBE, who founded the first Black-owned boxing gym in London. He became a football coach at 18. He coached boxing for years. The through-line across all of it has been the same: finding potential in people, and building the conditions for it to flourish.

"As the Public Enemy lyric states: 'most of my heroes don't appear on no stamp,'" he says. "If I can help anyone to be someone's hero then the effort is worth it." When the ask came to join the board, the answer was straightforward: "When I was asked to become a trustee the progression was a must do. I hope I justify that trust."